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Big S doesn’t cook a lot, and that is alright. For Valentine’s Day, he thought he’d do something special, and prepare a nice meal for the family. I got pretty damn excited, because really, there isn’t much better in life, than riding home from work, and finding that good food has miraculously made it on to the table (especially when I had nothing to do with it whatsoever). He asked for a couple of easy recipes, and I had recently prepped some beans and lentils, and made some paneer, so I figured it would be a safe bet to pass along recipes for Chana Masala, Mutter Paneer, and Dahl Makhani. I’d even bought some nice fresh garam masala from up the street, so the dishes were practically going to make themselves.

Beautiful man, he made them. When I got home, he said that he had some trouble finding the right herbs. I looked in the pots, only to find the wrong beans and, we’ll call them, interesting scents wafting out. The following is how I choose to believe our conversation happened:

“That’s cause they’re white navy beans, and the spices you needed are new and in the cupboard, with the can of chickpeas, like I wrote in the email.”

“Oh.”

“How about we have some soup tonight?”

“That sounds like a good plan.”

In the end, a couple of days passed, and when I took the curried dishes out of the fridge, it really didn’t take much to get the dahl and the mutter paneer to taste great, but the chana masala was a bit of a misfire, but the Big S actually did a fair job, the spices just needed time to settle.

Next time, we won’t have the same problem. Possibly not the most beautiful job, but definitely utilitarian. Don’t think William Morris (or Jules) would be too aghast and turn his nose up at this, but Martha might be a little squeamish and possibly might have to turn away. The spices are now labelled, this project was pretty easy, and involved no new money spent. When all is said and done, I’m sure dinner will be perfect from now on ;-)